Tend to agree with this.

COUNTING DOWN AND NOT STAYING UP: Make a pact with yourself to not feel
guilty about doing nothing at all this December 31

Consider this your official pass to avoid doing anything on New Year?s
Eve.
Print it out if you need to. Get it stamped on coasters. Make business
cards and whip them out at the mere whiff of a suggestion that you
actually have to celebrate waving ta-ra to a rather tepid 2023 and ring
in 2024 by staying up way beyond your usual bedtime, or getting
increasingly annoyed at the mere mention and mention and mention (repeat
ad infinitum) of the word Hootenanny.
Now let?s be clear on something from the start: If you love a party,
dressing up, saying ?fizz? a lot and know how Auld Lang Syne goes, good
on you.
I salute you, wish I was a bit more like you, and I envy you a little if
I?m totally honest. I really do. Because I?ve often wondered what it
would be like to be the type of someone who gets more joy out of ?the
doing? than she does out of ?the looking forward to?.
I mean, I get happily giddy at the thought of just dropping by a pal?s
house for nibbles and After Eights on December 31 whilst wearing a
sequined two-piece and humming Abba?s Happy New Year to myself.
Maybe I?d make a grazing platter or cheesy spinach and artichoke dip,
none of which, of course, would collapse or spill on the walk over in
vertiginous heels. Or? maybe not.

That?s not me at all, and if that?s not you either then I think that?s
rather wonderful. Embrace it, don?t fight it - you're just somebody who
knows real life continues to be just as it was after the bongs get to
12. Just relax?you?ve just taken a whole lot of pressure off yourself.

If you?re more the type to close the curtains, snuggle up with a hot
chocolate, write in your new address book, don?t answer the door and
make lists of things the ?New Year, New You? will do in 2024, when you
secretly know none of it will happen, that?s bloody brilliant.
It?s OK to not want to do anything but hunker down and bless the
weather. It?s admissible to avoid a fireworks display and side-eye tipsy
good-timers snuffing out their flaccid sparklers in a cheap plastic cup
filled with flat cider. It?s not boring to prefer to mark the passage of
another year with quiet ceremony in a dressing gown, book an early night
and toast the past 12 months with a cup of tea with full fat milk and
three proper sugars. Go on, live a little. ?Cos if there?s one thing I
know to be true it?s this: You do not have to join in somebody else's
idea of fun in order to be fun. Fact. End of. So there.

I?m putting that out into the Whoniverse now so you don't have to make
that mistake. I mean, just look at what happened to me back in 2017.
This self-confessed party pooper made a right oops by thinking a Twixmas
party was all about getting free chocolate. What an idiot.
I distinctly recall spending two hours in an overcrowded house of
somebody?s friend?s friend shouting, "SORRY! CAN'T HEAR A WORD YOU'RE
SAYING".
I mean, why, why, why, why, why play music so loudly?
Why, why, why, why, why doesn't anybody seem to mind it?
Why, why, why, why, why don?t people arrive wearing overcoats when it?s
colder than a penguin?s dreams outside?
I was literally lost for words - not that you could have heard me over
Europe?s The Final Countdown anyway.
Then there was the buffet. At this Twixmas shindig, some bright spark
had put out lasagne AS FINGER FOOD. Sadly, there was no sign of the
pasting table-busting mountain of ham rolls you get in a south Walian
buffet like the ones I grew up on.
I frankly didn?t know what to say when somebody asked me if I wanted
some ?dazzling renaissance salad and Brussels sprout pasta ? on my
plate.
(That?s a lie. I did know what to say. I?m just remembering last year?s
New Year?s resolution to be more ladylike!)

Next to the lasagne and panettone stuffing squares (dear god alive) was
a platter of biscuits. Before you could say, ?Do I really have to watch
Doctor Who and that thing with the midwives??, I was nibbling from a
stack of novelty tins shaped like London buses or a pale imitation of
your dog. (Host: ?How thoughtful it was that somebody bought me a tin
shaped like my black cockapoo, Buster for Christmas. It's perfect!? Me:
?Yeah, I suppose a white Westie with the name ?Scotty? embossed on his
enamel collar is close enough.?)

The point I?m trying to make here is that whatever you?re doing/not
doing, try not to worry about being somebody or something that you?re
not, in some place you imagine that?s swankier than where you are right
now.
Also, don?t regret turning down a party where lasagne finger food is de
rigueur either. Go if you fancy it. Promise me you will. Have a fabulous
time. Off you pop and Hootenanny the night away if that's your thing and
do it full throttle and wholeheartedly. Just don?t forget to take a bib.
And definitely don?t invite me. I really can?t think of better
resolutions to wrap up 2023.

--
Jim the Geordie

On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
> Tend to agree with this.
>
<Snip>

There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times. We finally dropped
it after NYE 1999/2000 when the whole phone and SMS system crashed due
to the sheer volume of calls and messages.

As often as not, I've been up at sparrowfart anyway on New Years Day to
meet a load of tourists at or deliver them to the airport.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On 27/12/2023 13:26, John Williamson wrote:
> On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
>> Tend to agree with this.
>>
> <Snip>
>
> There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
> midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times. We finally dropped
> it after NYE 1999/2000 when the whole phone and SMS system crashed due
> to the sheer volume of calls and messages.
>
> As often as not, I've been up at sparrowfart anyway on New Years Day to
> meet a load of tourists at or deliver them to the airport.
>
Having said that, one neighbour will still be up at midnight, as her
mutt *loves* fireworks and makes a fuss if she can't see them as well as
hear them.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

John Williamson <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote in news:kv2mvhFbpmfU1
@mid.individual.net:

> On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
>> Tend to agree with this.
>>
> There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
> midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times. We finally dropped
> it after NYE 1999/2000 when the whole phone and SMS system crashed due
> to the sheer volume of calls and messages.

I usually feel an urge to say up past midnight but fall asleep at 11. The
phoning can wait until daylight.

--
Peter
-----

On Wed, 27 Dec 2023 12:51:54 -0000
Jim S <jim@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote:

> real life continues to be just as it was after the bongs get to 12.

Not for quite some time if the weed was any good - oh not that kind
of bongs.

It's been a long time since I bothered to stay up until midnight
for it. The last time it was worth doing I was in Amsterdam where the
fireworks are more than a little over the top, if a little alarming - many
people were hand launching (big) rockets from a pocket full while standing
in the middle of a dense crowd along the Singel.

The entire city was covered in pink paper from inside of fireworks
in the morning. I've never noticed even small quantities of it anywhere
else!

Don't try and book a hotel for this year, they'll only laugh at you.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

On 27/12/2023 13:26, John Williamson wrote:
> On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
>> Tend to agree with this.
>>
> <Snip>
>
> There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
> midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times.

Long ago, I hfrq to fire up the 145MHz radio and have a chat with some
of the locals, but it's many hectofortnights since then. These days, I
prefer my nice warm bed, well before midnight.

--
Regards,
Andrew.

On 27/12/2023 15:27, Peter wrote:
> John Williamson <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote in news:kv2mvhFbpmfU1
> @mid.individual.net:
>
>> On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
>>> Tend to agree with this.
>>>
>> There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
>> midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times. We finally dropped
>> it after NYE 1999/2000 when the whole phone and SMS system crashed due
>> to the sheer volume of calls and messages.
>
> I usually feel an urge to say up past midnight but fall asleep at 11. The
> phoning can wait until daylight.

We still have enough get up and go to trot outside at midnight (assuming
neither of us have a gig) and see if any neighbours are doing likewise -
they used to but now it's just us.

In article <kv6jgqFe1gdU7@mid.individual.net>, Mike Fleming
<mike@tauzero.co.uk> on Fri, 29 Dec 2023 at 00:51:35 awoke Nicholas
from his slumbers and wrote
>On 27/12/2023 15:27, Peter wrote:
>> John Williamson <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote in news:kv2mvhFbpmfU1
>> @mid.individual.net:
>>
>>> On 27/12/2023 12:51, Jim S wrote:
>>>> Tend to agree with this.
>>>>
>>> There was a time when we all used to stay up and phone each other at
>>> midnight, now we just crash out at the normal times. We finally dropped
>>> it after NYE 1999/2000 when the whole phone and SMS system crashed due
>>> to the sheer volume of calls and messages.
>>
>> I usually feel an urge to say up past midnight but fall asleep at 11. The
>> phoning can wait until daylight.
>
>We still have enough get up and go to trot outside at midnight (assuming
>neither of us have a gig) and see if any neighbours are doing likewise -
>they used to but now it's just us.

I did that last year and the carcass of a celebratory rocket fell on my
head.

Lights in neighbouring houses were all off.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

On 29/12/2023 12:32, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:
> I did that last year and the carcass of a celebratory rocket fell on my
> head.

Gave you some stick, did it?

Tone

"Nicholas D. Richards" <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote in
news:+zawkqABxrjlFASd@salmiron.com:

>
> I did that last year and the carcass of a celebratory rocket fell on
> my head.

Oof. Goodenuf reason to stay indoors.
> Lights in neighbouring houses were all off.

'cos they wanted to watch the firejbexes.

--
Peter
-----

What I did was listened to an internet station from New Zealand, and saw the
new year in at 11AM our the day before.
Sadly though, the huge fireworks some people let off at local midnight woke
me up.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Jim S" <jim@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.3ff62e42c117cd11989756@news.eternal-september.org...
> Tend to agree with this.
>
> COUNTING DOWN AND NOT STAYING UP: Make a pact with yourself to not feel
> guilty about doing nothing at all this December 31
>
> Consider this your official pass to avoid doing anything on New Year?s
> Eve.
> Print it out if you need to. Get it stamped on coasters. Make business
> cards and whip them out at the mere whiff of a suggestion that you
> actually have to celebrate waving ta-ra to a rather tepid 2023 and ring
> in 2024 by staying up way beyond your usual bedtime, or getting
> increasingly annoyed at the mere mention and mention and mention (repeat
> ad infinitum) of the word Hootenanny.
> Now let?s be clear on something from the start: If you love a party,
> dressing up, saying ?fizz? a lot and know how Auld Lang Syne goes, good
> on you.
> I salute you, wish I was a bit more like you, and I envy you a little if
> I?m totally honest. I really do. Because I?ve often wondered what it
> would be like to be the type of someone who gets more joy out of ?the
> doing? than she does out of ?the looking forward to?.
> I mean, I get happily giddy at the thought of just dropping by a pal?s
> house for nibbles and After Eights on December 31 whilst wearing a
> sequined two-piece and humming Abba?s Happy New Year to myself.
> Maybe I?d make a grazing platter or cheesy spinach and artichoke dip,
> none of which, of course, would collapse or spill on the walk over in
> vertiginous heels. Or? maybe not.
>
> That?s not me at all, and if that?s not you either then I think that?s
> rather wonderful. Embrace it, don?t fight it - you're just somebody who
> knows real life continues to be just as it was after the bongs get to
> 12. Just relax?you?ve just taken a whole lot of pressure off yourself.
>
> If you?re more the type to close the curtains, snuggle up with a hot
> chocolate, write in your new address book, don?t answer the door and
> make lists of things the ?New Year, New You? will do in 2024, when you
> secretly know none of it will happen, that?s bloody brilliant.
> It?s OK to not want to do anything but hunker down and bless the
> weather. It?s admissible to avoid a fireworks display and side-eye tipsy
> good-timers snuffing out their flaccid sparklers in a cheap plastic cup
> filled with flat cider. It?s not boring to prefer to mark the passage of
> another year with quiet ceremony in a dressing gown, book an early night
> and toast the past 12 months with a cup of tea with full fat milk and
> three proper sugars. Go on, live a little. ?Cos if there?s one thing I
> know to be true it?s this: You do not have to join in somebody else's
> idea of fun in order to be fun. Fact. End of. So there.
>
> I?m putting that out into the Whoniverse now so you don't have to make
> that mistake. I mean, just look at what happened to me back in 2017.
> This self-confessed party pooper made a right oops by thinking a Twixmas
> party was all about getting free chocolate. What an idiot.
> I distinctly recall spending two hours in an overcrowded house of
> somebody?s friend?s friend shouting, "SORRY! CAN'T HEAR A WORD YOU'RE
> SAYING".
> I mean, why, why, why, why, why play music so loudly?
> Why, why, why, why, why doesn't anybody seem to mind it?
> Why, why, why, why, why don?t people arrive wearing overcoats when it?s
> colder than a penguin?s dreams outside?
> I was literally lost for words - not that you could have heard me over
> Europe?s The Final Countdown anyway.
> Then there was the buffet. At this Twixmas shindig, some bright spark
> had put out lasagne AS FINGER FOOD. Sadly, there was no sign of the
> pasting table-busting mountain of ham rolls you get in a south Walian
> buffet like the ones I grew up on.
> I frankly didn?t know what to say when somebody asked me if I wanted
> some ?dazzling renaissance salad and Brussels sprout pasta ? on my
> plate.
> (That?s a lie. I did know what to say. I?m just remembering last year?s
> New Year?s resolution to be more ladylike!)
>
> Next to the lasagne and panettone stuffing squares (dear god alive) was
> a platter of biscuits. Before you could say, ?Do I really have to watch
> Doctor Who and that thing with the midwives??, I was nibbling from a
> stack of novelty tins shaped like London buses or a pale imitation of
> your dog. (Host: ?How thoughtful it was that somebody bought me a tin
> shaped like my black cockapoo, Buster for Christmas. It's perfect!? Me:
> ?Yeah, I suppose a white Westie with the name ?Scotty? embossed on his
> enamel collar is close enough.?)
>
> The point I?m trying to make here is that whatever you?re doing/not
> doing, try not to worry about being somebody or something that you?re
> not, in some place you imagine that?s swankier than where you are right
> now.
> Also, don?t regret turning down a party where lasagne finger food is de
> rigueur either. Go if you fancy it. Promise me you will. Have a fabulous
> time. Off you pop and Hootenanny the night away if that's your thing and
> do it full throttle and wholeheartedly. Just don?t forget to take a bib.
> And definitely don?t invite me. I really can?t think of better
> resolutions to wrap up 2023.
>
> --
> Jim the Geordie